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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Here's an update on what I've been doing at my jewelry desk for the past week...

I got some gold-fill wire and made my popular set of mixed metal stacking rings in sterling silver, yellow and rose gold-fill wire. A bit of a pain to get rid of the copper that comes to the surface when heated (don't want to sand too much because, gold! Intimidating to sand off gold.) But gold fill wire has a nice feel to it and it's nice that it won't tarnish - compared to copper and brass.

I finished a bezel set cab from the stash that I brought home with me from Oregon. I LOVE this pendant. It just calls for being strung on a sterling silver viking knit chain, but I don't know if people would want to pay the money for that, so it's in my shop for sale with a thinner snake chain.

And I literally just finished this necklace as well. I had the setting done earlier in the week but then I decided it needed a matching beaded necklace instead of just chain and went on a bead shop expedition yesterday to find the right beads. I haven't had a chance to get a good set of pictures yet, but here's a quick shot from my phone.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the necklace is dragon blood jasper and garnet to match the teardrop stone and small cabochon. I'm really happy with how this turned out. I also realized how HARD it is for me to do bead stringing. I find it so much easier and faster to whip out a sterling bezel setting (even with having to go to the garage to use my big bead torch) than figuring out what colors and patterns of beads I want on a string. And don't get me started with crimp beads and crimp covers! (Grrr....)

I also experimented a little bit in between finishing those two pendants.

It it the cutest little snake? I'm not totally happy with the placement of the eyes (looks like cute cartoon snake, rather than realistic) but I like the shape and design of it. I haven't taken pictures to put it in the shop yet, but that's on my radar for tomorrow.

I also got confirmation that I will be participating in the Snohomish Gift and Craft Bazaar on May 11th, so I am trying to build up some inventory so that my table doesn't look so bare. That's the problem with offering so many custom items on Etsy - I don't actually keep anything in stock. I've got almost two weeks to go though, so I should have a good quantity by then. This will be my first "real" craft show (I don't really count the fundraiser show I did last year - nobody sold much of anything) and I'm still trying to work out how my table will be arranged. I ordered some displays from a source online - beige and linen instead of black or white. I could only get a black tablecloth, but I also got a chocolate brown organza topper, which will match the my color scheme pretty well. I'm also going to bribe my husband to make me a few risers and an earring display stand out of scrap plywood and I'll paint them the same bronze color as the previous displays he made me.

For next week: I still have some silver pattern wire that I ordered that I want to make bangle bracelets out of. I also have a half dozen stone cabochons that I want to design settings for. Not that I could do all of them in one week!

I also have to get some non jewelry things done as well (shopping for my husband's birthday present, cleaning the house!). But next week I'll probably have some preliminary set-up pictures of my craft fair table to share - and hopefully more shiny things as well! :)

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Anybody in the Seattle area? I'm going to be participating as a vendor in the Snohomish Gift and Craft Bazaar on May 11th. That's the day before Mother's Day and it will be a perfect chance to get the mom in your life a nice gift! (Have I mentioned before that I make pretty, sparkly, shiny things?)

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

My blog has been discovered by some very persistent spam-bots and I'm getting sick of having to delete their comments. So sorry if there are any real human beings who may like to someday leave comments on the blog, but I had to turn on the annoying word verification thingy to post comments.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Whew! I'm back from vacation and here's what I've been up to at my jewelry desk for the past few weeks...

I had a nice week of family vacation. My parents came out from the Midwest to visit me and my aunt in Portland. I took the train down to Portland for a few days to hang out with everybody at my aunt's house, then my parents and I took the train back up to Seattle and they stayed at our house for a few more days. We even had decent weather for most of the week too!

So I was away from my jewelry desk for most of the week, but that doesn't mean I was away from thinking about jewelry! My aunt in Portland is a fellow jewelry maker and took me to an awesome rock shop where I bought some great cabochons. I also received a bunch of boxes from suppliers while I was gone - with more cabochons, small rose-cut gems, and wire.

I came back from vacation and made what felt like a billion stacking rings for Etsy orders from the week that I was away. (Along with a bunch of knot earrings to match a previous bracelet order.)

Then I finally got a chance to make a new pair of earrings from my new gemstone hoard. Hammered fine silver hoops with labradorite stones. I'm hoping for some good lighting tomorrow to take pictures and get them listed in the shop.

And here's the rest of the hoard. Check out the flash on that labradorite teardrop cab! It was a bit of a splurge, but I have plans for an awesome pendant to put in the shop. I also drew up some sketches for a red agate and garnet pendant and a dragon's blood jasper and garnet pendant. Then I have a blue lace agate cab, two dark blue sodalite cabs (I'm thinking earrings), a rhodonite cab, a cab of some sort of banded agate, two rose-cut light blue topaz gems, four rose-cut amethysts (2 light purple, 2 pink) and a pair of half drilled pearls.

And that doesn't even include the big box of new wire that I haven't had a chance to play with. I'm really looking forward to making some great things next week.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

I'm late again! Here's an update on what I've been doing at my jewelry desk for the past week...
Not wanting to keep all of my eggs in one basket, I opened a shop on The Craftstar a little while ago (http://miscellaneaetcetera.thecraftstar.com/). I have been working on that and got a few sales already.

I made a pair of Hammered Disc and Pearl earrings in sterling silver - by special request for a friend of the family who saw them on Facebook.

I made a whole mess of stacking rings again this week. They seem to be very popular! Good thing they are fun to make.

I also ordered some small cabochon and rose cut gemstones from overseas for gemstone stacking rings. Now I just have to wait for them to get here in the mail! Why can't we have transporters or something like that. I'm way too impatient! Luckily a wire order I made will get here a lot faster. I decided to try out making rings with gold-fill wire and ordered some actual solid gold solder for them. Holy cow, gold is pricey! I only ordered 3 inches because of the sticker shock and let me tell you, I'm going to make that 3 inches last!

I also bought some silver clay. I'm going to try to make some small things that I can fire with my torch. We'll see how I do with it...

Next week is a vacation for me so I may not update - mostly because I won't be doing much worth updating about at my jewelry desk. I'll be in Portland for half the week, then my parents are coming up here to visit. We'll probably hit downtown Seattle and Mount Rainier, and that won't leave me much time for jewelry.

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